1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to apparatus and methods for gait rehabilitation and, in particular, to an apparatus for locomotor therapy and method of operating the same.
2. Background of the Disclosure
Spinal cord injuries affect approximately 12,000 individuals within the United States each year. Such injuries, as well neurological disorders, can have a devastating effect on the lives of those suffering from such an affliction, especially those who are young. Recent innovations in the area of gait rehabilitation have explored the use of locomotor therapy for those suffering from stroke, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, and the like. Using locomotor therapy, an individual can retrain the brain, through repetitive practice of complex gait stroke, to re-learn the motor skills required to effectuate locomotion.
Many locomotor therapy machines utilize body weight support systems to maintain the patient's position relative to a device for effectuating movement of the limbs. This is accomplished by supporting the patient through use of a body harness and a gantry placed over the ground or more often a treadmill. While this sufficiently unloads the patient's legs and maintains the body position of the patient, significant effort is required by the clinician to guide the patient into the harness and into an appropriate position within the machine. Additionally, the clinician is often required to manually effectuate movement of the patient's limbs until the patient has reached a stage where sufficient locomotive ability is gained to operate the system on their own.
One example of a system as described in the foregoing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,666,798. The disclosed locomotor therapy system is of the body support system treadmill training type and utilizes a gantry and harness to support the patient over a treadmill. The system requires the aid to be positioned either behind or in front of the patient, with the clinician's legs being coupled to the patient's legs by a series of brackets. Through this system, the clinician's gait is duplicated by the patient, thereby effectuating locomotion.
This type of system often places considerable strain on the therapist. Additionally, it is difficult to maintain consistent gait as locomotion is effectuated manually by the clinician. An additional limitation is the gait of the clinician is often mismatched with that of the patient due to differing body sizes.
In order to mitigate some of these issues, driven gait orthosis have been developed to robotically control the patient's gait as the patient walks on the treadmill. These devices utilize the body weight support systems as described above, with the addition of the driven gait orthosis being secured to the patient's legs. This system removes the need for the clinician to manually effectuate locomotion in addition to providing consistent gait.
One example of a driven gait orthosis system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,821,233. The disclosed driven gait orthosis system utilizes a body support system and a treadmill consistent with the previous disclosure. However, replacing the clinician is a driven and controlled orthotic device, which guides the legs in a physiological pattern of movement. Additionally, the orthotic device can be adjusted and adapted to different patients.
While this type of system eliminates some of the previously disclosed issues, significant limitations still remain. There remains the issue of guiding and lifting the patient into the correct position in order to effectively use the system. Additionally, significant effort is required to secure and adjust the driven gait orthosis to the patient. Moreover, a limitation of both disclosed systems is the patient being a passive part of the system, i.e. effectuation of the movement of the legs is by means of external forces.
It would be preferable, however, if the clinician had the ability to allow the patient to effectuate their own locomotion, the ability to easily transfer the patient to and from the locomotor therapy system, the ability to easily adapt the system to each patient's physiological makeup, and the ability to rehabilitate paraplegic and quadriplegic patients without transferring the patient to separate machines. As such, there remains a need for an improved locomotor therapy system.